Into the Shadows
by SeriesOfContradictions
Summary: Taking place just after Rise of the Guardians. Fear was introduced for a reason: because there are things more dangerous than Pitch and now that he's out of the picture, they're coming back into the world. The Guardians will have to contend with them.
1. Chapter 1 - A World without Fear

Darkness stretched deep into the woods during the early weeks of winter. The days had shrunk back to nothing at the turning of the season and shadows had free reign. And in a part of the woods where no artificial light was there to keep the darkness at bay, on the night of a new moon, when one couldn't see the hand in front of their own face, Anika slept soundly. There was no fear to her dreams, no darkness hiding in the corners of her imagination. There was a smile tugging at the corner of her lips as she dreamed of the snowfall that had yet to come this season.

She and her friends were making snowmen in her dreams and she had just set the head on top of the first two mounds of snow when she paused in confusion. She could have sworn she heard music on the wind.

"Anika? Was ist los?" one of her friends asked. Anika didn't reply though. She was sure of it now, she could hear the ghostly tune of a tin whistle echoing from somewhere in the forest.

"Ich bin gleich wieder da," Anika said, reassuring her friends as she hurried off towards the woods. When she got to the edge of the forest, she looked back over her shoulder to make sure none of them were following her, but they were gone. The snowman had vanished, as if none of it had ever existed. That was strange, she decided, but thought nothing of it. She'd find them later, for now she wanted to know about that song she was hearing.

A couple more steps into the snowy forest and suddenly she was opening her eyes from sleep. She was in her room, as before, but the music hadn't stopped. The tin whistle was still playing, the notes echoing sharply in her room. It came from her closet and she could swear she saw a bit of purple light glowing there. She could remember a time when she had been afraid of monsters in her closet, but that didn't scare her anymore. It was silly to believe in monsters.

She hopped out of bed, opening the closet door and just like that disappeared from her room.

* * *

There was a cold front moving in on Germany that evening. They could expect snow by dawn if Jack Frost had anything to say about it. The clear stars were quickly being covered by cottony clouds. The first of the flakes began to fall just as streams of golden sand lit their way through the darkness. Jack smiled to himself to see Sandman's trademark and ran his hand through one of those golden rivers. Dolphins dove through the sky, in and out of the sand-stream as though it were water.

The wind billowed up beneath Jack and he shot upward as though he'd been fired from a cannon, settling down on the edge of a golden cloud where Sandy was just starting on his night's work. After a moment, the small man turned around and raised an eyebrow curiously at Jack. A pocketwatch appeared above his head and and he looked at Jack with mock judgment, going as far as to wag a finger back and forth, though he couldn't hide the smile in his eyes.

"Yeah, yeah, I know," Jack laughed, "I'm late. I got hung up in France for a while. Paris is having its best snow day in years though." The Sandman smiled and turned his attention back to the dream sand. Jack watched him at work, fascinated by the network of gold splayed about below them, constantly moving, shifting and changing. Sandy's eyes were closed in concentration. He seemed to be able to see more than what Jack could, like he had a mental connection to the sand that was more than just the ability to control it.

Quite suddenly one of the strands of dream sand disappeared, falling away like dust caught in the wind. Jack narrowed his eyes, squinting to try to see where it had been coming from.

"What was that?" he asked in a low voice. Sandy shrugged. An alarm clock appeared over his head and Jack nodded. Something must have woken up one of the sleeping children.

"Why would someone be waking up in the middle of the night?" he wondered aloud. With Pitch out of the picture, it was unlikely it was because of a bad dream. Deciding that finding out for himself was the easiest way to quell his curiosity, Jack hopped down from the cloud. The wind snatched him up as easily as it had for the past three hundred years and he careened forward through the clouds.

A bit of frost marked the edge of a little boy's window as Jack settled precariously on the sill. He could see the kid rubbing sleep from his eyes as he peered intensely at his closet. Jack climbed quietly in through the window, but the kid didn't notice even for a moment. To Jack's surprise, as soon as he stepped into the room he could hear music playing, the cheery tune of a tin whistle.

"Hey, kid," he said, trying to get the boy's attention, but he didn't seem to be heard. He was worried that perhaps this boy was one of the ones who hadn't heard of him yet. As one of the newest Guardians, Jack had a much smaller following than the others and while he was working on growing that, there were still plenty of kids who would walk right through him. Still, something about this situation made Jack nervous. The kid walked into his closet and the music stopped. The dead silence immediately woke a sickening fear in Jack's gut and he immediately went to go check on the kid. But when he pulled the closet door aside, there was no child to be found; he'd vanished.

Jack frantically searched through the closet, pushing things aside, looking in toy boxes and dresser drawers, any place a kid might try to hide. But it was no good, the kid was gone. But how? Pitch was gone, so what else was there to be worried about in the dark? Whatever it was, the other Guardians needed to know about it. They needed to do something. They needed to find this kid, bring him back, and make sure this didn't happen to anyone else.

* * *

"So you're telling me that a kid just vanished? Just up and 'Poof!' disappeared? In his own bedroom?" Bunny was eyeing Jack with his usual skepticism. The others seemed more concerned. Sandy had been there to see Jack go running off and Tooth and North seemed to trust Jack's instincts on what he was telling them.

"Yes!" Jack insisted. "One second he was there, he walked into his closet and suddenly he was gone. I checked everywhere, he wasn't in that room."

"Could he have maybe run out when you weren't looking?" North questioned. From the way he was looking at Jack, it seemed clear that he was taking this seriously. But North was not the kind of person to go rushing into things without asking questions first.

"There's no way," Jack replied. "I was watching the whole time. Also... there was music."

"Music?" asked Tooth.

"Yeah, like someone was playing a flute or something. And then when he walked into the closet, the music cut off and it was like he'd never even been there," Jack explained. North nodded pensively, his brow knit in deep thought, Tooth watching him as though there were a question on the tip of her tongue.

"We know Pitch had job before Guardians," North conceded. "Keep children safe from things adults do not always see, things they cannot see. It's possible, Pitch is trapped and now these things come back, now our job as Guardians is all the more important. We promised to safeguard the children of the world. If these threats are coming back, we need to stop them."

"Sounds like step one is to figure out what we're up against," Bunny said. Jack was a little relieved to see that he was finally accepting the reality of what was happening. A musical note and a question mark appeared over Sandy's head.

"I don't know," Jack replied. "A flute? Or a whistle of some kind? And the kid seemed... distracted, like nothing else really mattered."

"That music must have some power over the kids who hear it," Tooth said. "So we just have to find the source and we'll have the one responsible."

"Yeah, but I didn't see anyone there playing it," Jack replied. "It was just disembodied music."

A frantic clinking sound caught Jack's attention and he noticed that the Sandman was staring at the lot of them with frustration etched over his face. He was holding an empty eggnog goblet and a fork which had apparently served as his noisemaker a moment ago. Once he was sure everyone was watching, he created a picture of a swirling vortex, similar to the portal that North's snow-globe opened up. He showed a picture of a musical note and a child going through the portal and then a picture of the Guardians following.

"Of course!" North bellowed. "A portal in and out of the room. It must be what makes children disappear. We go in portal after it and it takes us right to source of music!" Sandy nodded and Bunny and Tooth both seemed to be on board. It was a good way to find the source of the music alright, but Jack hesitated on how this plan seemed to be going.

"Hang on a second!" he said. "We're just going to sit and wait for him to strike again and hope we can get there in time? There's got to be another way to track him! We can't just use kids as bait to catch this thing. Who knows where they're going or what's happening to them." The others were looking guiltily at the ground, and after a moment of silence, Tooth spoke up.

"Jack... we want to help, but we have no idea how to find this thing. We don't know where it comes from or where it's going to go next. I don't want anyone to be in danger, but we won't know how to find this thing before it opens up that portal again," she said. She was trying to reason with him, but it wasn't getting through.

"What other way is there to stop it?" North asked. "None of us even know what it is." Jack looked away, a dark thought suddenly brewing in his mind.

"Jack?" Tooth asked, putting a hand on his shoulder. Her pleading expression was a mix of hope and guilt. It was terrible to see.

"You're right. None of us know anything," he said. "I'll meet you guys in Pennsylvania to keep an eye on the dream sand. It should be getting dark there around now."

The others were quiet as he left. The wind carried him to Pennsylvania, to Burgess, home. But he flew past the frozen lake and past Jaime's house, out to a clearing in the woods where a dark hole still remained. He looked down into the blackness that seemed to swallow up everything. Jack steeled his nerves, gripped his staff with both hands, ready for a fight if one awaited him, and hopped down the hole into the darkness that waited below.


	2. Chapter 2 - Talks in the Dark

Pitch's lair was just as Jack remembered. Shadows lurked everywhere, some deeper and blacker than others, but everywhere Jack turned his eyes took a moment to adjust and tell danger from dull rock. He could pick up the sound of something rushing through the air. As he stepped around a corner into the main room of the cavern, it was to something he hadn't expected. He remembered the thousands of tiny black cages, but barely any of them seemed to still be in tact. They looked old, rusted, as though time had finally caught up with them. Only the globe remained as before, lights on every continent defiantly glowing.

In the center of the room was the newest addition, and the source of the sound that Jack had been hearing. There was an amorphous cloud of black dream-sand swirling in the center of the cavern. Jack squinted to see through it and thought he could barely make out the shape of someone sitting in the center, but through the movement it was impossible to tell for certain.

He drew a breath to speak and was cut off by a frightfully familiar voice.

"Jack Frost," Pitch said. He spoke quietly and though it should have been barely audible over the rushing nightmare sand, it cut through the din like a knife. "I thought one of you might be back here soon enough. I should have guessed it would be you."

"I'm not here to help you, Pitch," Jack warned, staff at the ready as he watched the prison for any sign that Pitch was making a move to escape.

"No, I imagine not. I imagine you're here because you're afraid. Funny thing that," Pitch said. There was a mocking tone to his voice. "I wonder which one you've met. My old friends from the Dark Ages... I assume that's what's troubling you?"

Jack struggled to try to answer without giving anything away, but his silence told Pitch more than he might have had he spoken.

"Honestly, what did you think I was doing all those years? Did you think I was given my powers for no reason? That I had no purpose before you fools took my job? Oh no, no I had my work cut out for me," Pitch assured. Shapes began to form in the dark cloud. They never left the vortex of sand and if Jack looked away for a moment, he would miss them. But they were terrible, images of monsters and wolves, plagues and demons alike. There were things to fear, things that could hurt and kill, and Pitch had known them all from the beginning.

"My job was to protect children. Fear is a useful thing, Jack. It keeps children from wandering places they shouldn't go, places where they might be hurt," Pitch explained. "And now you've vanquished it. Congratulations. Children are fearless. Is it any wonder they're in danger?"

"We can protect them," Jack snapped back.

"And you're doing a marvelous job, apparently. Do tell, which is it? Who have you met?"

The Guardian of Fun paused, his pride unwilling to let him speak for a moment. But if he didn't get the answers he needed, children could disappear, could be killed. Who knew what monsters were lurking in the shadows, waiting.

"I don't know," Jack admitted.

Pitch's laughter echoed through the cavern at Jack's admission. Jack could see movement as Pitch stood up within the cloud, but no sooner had he done so than it seemed the dark dream-sand grew thicker and covered his form again. It was eerie, his voice seemed to come from everywhere when he spoke.

"You don't even know who you're fighting. Oh, this must be rich, watching you all chase your tails around. I wish I had a better seat."

"I don't suppose you could have a worse one," Jack growled bitterly. "Look, the only clue we've got is a melody, a song. There's the sound of a flute or a whistle or something. The kids follow it and they disappear." Pitch had no call to help him, but he had always seemed to like the sound of his own voice. Maybe if Jack gave Pitch the tools he'd let the information slip on accident.

"Oh, Piper!" Pitch replied. "I hadn't even thought of him. I suppose he managed to get back out. How delightful. I remember him, I remember how to defeat him. I remember his powers, how he gets in and out, everything. And I could tell you, Jack. I could give you the tools to defeat him, just as I did centuries ago. For a price."

"What price?" Jack asked, though he could swear the question was one he could already answer.

"Freedom," Pitch replied. "If so much as one child believes in me I can break free from this prison. I can go back to doing the work I am meant to do, the work that keeps things like this from happening. Bring one child down here and I'll be released. And you... will have your answers."

"No," Jack replied immediately. "After everything you did... the world's better off without you. North was right, it's the Guardians' turn to protect the world. We can't just hand it over to fear." Jack could practically feel the anger radiating off of Pitch, though he still couldn't see him through the cloud of nightmares.

"Fine then. Allow your world to suffer," Pitch said venomously. "Run through mazes you can't make heads and tails of. This is the smallest of them, this is nothing more than a child playing games and you can't even stop him. I hope you meet Bloody Mary next, she'll send you screaming back down here, pleading for the darkness I offer in place of the blood and pain the others do. You Guardians are a joke, and the darker things of this world will prove it to you."

"We'll see about that," Jack muttered, turning to leave the cavern behind him.

* * *

As Jack resurfaced from Pitch's Lair, he could see that twilight had given way to nightfall, the moon was on the rise. Rivers of dream-sand carved their way through the night. Far off in the distance Jack could see Sandy at the center of it all, perched just above a roof. As he flew over towards the Sandman, the other three Guardians came into view and he settled on the rooftop next to them.

"Hey," he greeted. "Hope I didn't miss anything."

"Not yet," Bunny replied. He didn't look at Jack as he said it though. Like the other Guardians, he was focused on the sand, watching carefully in case one fell away the way Jack had described. None of them were willing to allow for the chance that they might get there a little too late. Jack joined the watch, carefully eyeing each strand with baited breathed.

"There!" North cried and everyone jumped a little at his booming voice breaking the tense silence. The others turned just in time to see the sand fall away and Sandy led the way as they took off to find the kid that had woken.

Jack didn't bother to wait at the window this time, he jumped inside just as the kid got out of bed. The little girl was staring at her closet, looking right through Jack. He placed himself between her and the closet and got down on one knee, ready to grab her if she made a run for it. But to his complete dismay, she walked right through him. The familiar and horrible punch-in-the-gut feeling of not being believed in struck home. The other Guardians piled into the room just as the child opened the closet door, revealing a swirling purple vortex of light, and walked straight into it, disappearing from sight.

"Quick! Before it closes!" North shouted, and each of the Guardians hurried right through the portal without a look back. The purple light disappeared, the music stopped playing and the room was quiet and still, as if not a soul had ever lived there.


	3. Chapter 3 - Going in Blind

The Guardians were dropped unceremoniously in front of a house. It was old and decrepit, the kind of house that had forgotten it had ever been a home. Cobwebs had settled in the corners of doorways and window frames long ago and some of the panes of glass were broken. There was no sign of movement in or outside the house. Nothing could be seen inside it though, not even the outlines of furniture or whatever else it might contain. The curtains were open, light should have gotten through, but it was as though it were swallowed up at the windows. Around the front yard where the Guardians had appeared, was an old wooden fence, barely three feet tall, and falling apart into shambles from decades, if not centuries, of wear.

Bunny looked from the house in front of them to the closed fence behind, an idea beginning to form in his mind.

"I wonder..." he muttered. He tapped his foot twice on the ground, but nothing happened. No tunnel opened beneath him and the suspicion on his face quickly turned to concern.

As soon as he'd seen this, North reached for his snow globe and tossed it into the air, but it fell to the ground uselessly. Jack, worried their powers had been somehow negated entirely, spun his staff, the tip of it brushing the grass. Frost formed behind him, providing a little relief. It was just the things that would let them escape not working then...

While the others looked curiously at the house, Jack's attention fell on the fence that surrounded them and he walked to the other end of the enclosure from the others. He came up to the fence that surrounded them, kneeling down so that he could examine it more closely. He stretched his hand out towards it, but just before his hand would have touched the weathered wooden surface, it disappeared from sight.

"Woah!" he shouted, jumping back again.

"Jack?" Tooth immediately asked, flitting over to see what had happened. "Are you okay? What happened?"

"Only one way to find out," he replied, staring at the fence defiantly as he got to his feet again. Without waiting to explain, he ran straight at the fence and nearly plowed head-first into Bunny.

"Hey!" Bunny shouted, throwing his hands up and stepping aside as Jack stumbled past him. "Where did you come from?!" Jack looked over his shoulder to see Tooth on the other end of the enclosure. He had tried to leave and had just ended up entering on the other side. He stuck his hand back through where he'd come from and heard Tooth cry out in alarm from where he'd jumped through before.

"Jack! Why is your hand over here?! And why aren't you attached to it?" she questioned.

"It's alright. It's just some kind of illusion, I think. Some way to keep us here. This must be why the kids can't get back," he said, poking his head through the barrier to smile playfully back at Tooth. "Doesn't hurt or anything though. Just means we'll have to find another way back."

"Alright, well now that we've wasted time figuring that out, can we see if we can get to this kid before we lose the trail?" Bunny snapped. Jack was taken aback by how short his friend was being with him. They had a competitive friendship on the best of days, but something more seemed to be bothering him.

"Sorry, hate to think I'd lighten the mood any," Jack grumbled. He felt a tap on his shoulder and noticed Sandy staring up at a sign above the door to the house. He hadn't noticed it before, it had been too weathered and old to make out the writing, but as Sandy's dream-sand illuminated it more, the words 'Fun House' became legible.

"I don't think this is the kind of house that knows what fun is," Jack pointed out. He noticed that Bunny's ears were flattened against his head in apprehension. Tooth and Sandy were also staring at the house warily. North looked from his companions to the house and made a show of waving his hand dismissively.

"It is gloomy, yes. But it is just a house," North said, drawing his sword and marching boldly forward. "I have entered many worse houses than this one. Come, we go!" He didn't bother to see if the others followed, and he didn't need to. They were on his heels, though every one of them had weapons drawn and ready as they stepped through the doorway and into the dark.

When they had all stepped inside, the door closed behind them, shutting out every ray of light. Even Sandy's golden lights didn't seem to reach beyond the Dream Guardian himself. Jack looked back over his shoulder, but there was no sign of where the door had been. All they had to go on was the narrow hallway they had found themselves in. North pushed forward into the dark and the other Guardians followed, but after a few seconds of walking North paused.

"What's the hold up?" Jack asked from the back of the group.

"It goes two ways..." North explained and Jack could hear a brushing sound as North scratched ponderously at his bearded chin. "We go right!"

"Why right?" asked Bunny.

"Why not right?" North asked. While Bunny struggled to come up with a reason, the group soldiered blindly onward, but it wasn't long before Jack heard a slightly guilty laugh from up ahead.

"Bunny! I found out why not right. Is because it leads to a dead end," North announced. "We turn around!" Jack thought he heard the dull thud of Bunny's head hitting the wall in frustration. North struggled to get back to the front of the team, which was tricky for a large man in a narrow hallway. In the midst of trying to finagle this, they were interrupted by an unfamiliar voice.

"I didn't invite you here," it said. It sounded like a boy's voice, but beyond that not much was distinguishable about it. The Guardians quickly got to a position where they could fight. Jack's hands gripped his staff and he could see in his mind's eye North poised with two swords and the Sandman's golden whips waiting to snatch whoever this was out of the darkness and into plain sight.

"You shouldn't come into someone's house when you're not invited," the voice continued. "Everyone knows that."

"We're here to find some children who have gone missing," explained Tooth. "Can you help us?" As soon as she had asked it, the darkness on the walls fell away, light filtered in to reveal a huge maze made entirely of mirrors. At the end of the hall sat a little boy with his back to them.

"There!" Bunny shouted, running straight at the child. But as he ran towards the kid, the child stood up and walked away, so that he was no longer visible in the frame of the mirror he had been reflected in.

He reappeared right in front of the other Guardians, a reflection that still seemed to stare right at them. His face gave away his mistrust and suspicion, but he was just a child. In his hands was a little tin whistle and he was gripping it with the same insecurity that a little kid does a doll or a teddy bear. He had golden curly hair and was dressed in clothes that were very much outdated, from a time before even Jack could remember.

"Why are you looking for them?" he asked. "And how did you get in here? Adults can't find this place."

"We're not adults," Jack replied, but he followed the child's skeptical gaze to North, who was without question a large and intimidating man. "Well, not exactly. We're the Guardians, we protect the children of this world." The little kid tilted his head to the side in confusion. He dipped away, out of the frame of the mirror and reappeared on the ceiling, staring at them still.

"This world? You must mean the other one. I protect the kids in this world. No one else does," he explained and disappeared again.

"Are you Piper?" Jack asked and the little boy reappeared again in front of him, a bright smile over his face.

"You know my name! I thought everyone had forgotten me. Yes, I'm the Pied Piper! Piper's what they used to call me before," he explained. The happiness that had lit up in Piper's eyes seemed as genuine and innocent as any kid that Jack had ever met. And the way Piper said that people had forgotten him struck home for Jack as well. It was hard to imagine that this guy was responsible for what had been going on, but Pitch had mentioned Piper by name and he even had the whistle...

"You said this world," Tooth pointed out, settling down in front of the reflection of the Pied Piper. "What do you mean? How can this be a different world? And where have the children gone that got led here?" As she asked it Jack could see the boy drawing away again. He took a step back and the smile faded.

"You're trying to take them away, aren't you?" he said. "They're my friends and I invited them here. They're happy here and you can't just take them away! It's against the rules."

"What rules?" North asked. Jack couldn't help the smirk that flitted over his face as he realized how odd it must have been for North to be in a situation where there were rules he hadn't made. The Piper walked away entirely, disappearing from sight and not bothering to reappear in any of the mirrors.

"My world, my rules," the Piper said shortly. "And now you have to leave."

The floor beneath the Guardians disappeared and they fell down for what felt like ages until they tumbled out through a closet and into a kid's bedroom, somewhere in Japan based on the posters that donned the wall. Jack shook his head, confused and disoriented from what had just happened. He looked back to North who looked regretfully over his shoulder to where the portal had been before. Jack's entire body felt heavy with grief. They'd failed. A little girl had needed their protection and they had failed her.


	4. Chapter 4 - Between the Lines

"It's not a matter of whether or not I trust him," Bunny insisted angrily.

A couple yetis paused in their work and looked nervously over. The Guardians had convened at the North Pole after their failed attempt at stopping the Pied Piper's abductions. Or at least, most of them had returned there. Jack had left dejectedly, without a word to the others. Nobody knew where he'd gone and Bunny had been quick to offer a theory, one that was not a matter to be discussed anywhere but North's workshop.

"It is _entirely_ a matter of whether or not you trust him," North countered, his voice just shy of roaring through the workshop. "Jack learned before that talking to Pitch brings nothing good. He fought Pitch with us. He was the reason we were able to stop Pitch last time and now you think he would go talk to him about this? No. Is nonsense."

"What do you guys think?" Bunny asked, looking to Tooth and Sandy. Tooth shrugged, looking guiltily to Sandy to see if he shared the doubts that had been gnawing at the back of her mind as well.

"It's just... how did he know the Pied Piper's name? Who else would know that name?" she asked. It wasn't an accusation though, it was like she was desperately hoping that North could offer any explanation other than the one she had come up with.

Sandy shrugged, showing a picture of an opened book. But Bunny shook his head, tossing the theory aside.

"Researched it? Jack Frost open a book? I don't think so. He didn't know anything when we talked to him before we left, he left before all of us and he got there last. What do you think, he stopped at a library? Nah, that doesn't add up," Bunny said. "I think we all know where he stopped in."

"Jack wouldn't do that," Tooth said, but it was clear that she was saying it to convince herself more than anyone else. Bunny looked back sympathetically. It wasn't something he wanted to think about either, but if it was true, then they needed to deal with it before it got out of hand. Jack rushed into things, it was in his nature to do things without thinking or telling people.

"Someone's got to talk to him about it," Bunny said. Sandy was the first to raise his hand, a good-natured smile on his face, but North shook his head.

"Matter is complicated enough with words, Sandy. It would not be playing to strengths," North said. Tooth had been staring ahead of her pensively until now but she felt North's eyes rest on her.

"I'll go," she said. She rubbed her arms as though any amount of the cold outside could make it into North's enormous workshop. She was dreading the talk she was about to have, but Bunny was right. It was an unfortunate necessity.

Jack was in Burgess, sitting up in a tree branch near the lake that marked home for him. Frost had iced its way over the bark during the hours he'd been sitting there, watching the frozen water as though if he stared at it long enough the answer would appear there like an oracle. Nothing changed on the icy surface though and time was slipping uselessly away.

They had failed. They had been toyed with and tossed aside, but it was more than that. It was everything about this kid, this Piper, that had Jack's thoughts knotted up. He was a kid, it just seemed like he didn't know what he was doing. He wasn't evil, he was just a kid with no parents and no one to show him that he was doing something wrong. But he was also powerful. He'd kicked them right back out of his home without a thought, it was like trying to sneak into the North Pole all over again, except this time there was a heck of a lot more at stake. The kid thought the kids he took were his friends, he just needed to not feel alone...

"Jack?" Tooth's voice pulled Jack out of his thoughts and he looked up to the vibrant colors of the Tooth Fairy as she hovered just above him.

"Hey, Tooth. What's up?" he asked. She was smiling, but it didn't reach her eyes and her arms were crossed worriedly over her chest. She only did that when there was something she was afraid to say.

"Just wondering where you'd gone is all," she said. Jack paused a moment, giving her a second in case there was anything else she wanted to add to that.

"Here," he replied. "Just trying to get a moment to think straight, try to brainstorm about this Piper kid."

"You couldn't have done that with the rest of us?" she asked quietly, looking a lot more hurt than he had expected. What was going on here?

"Well, I mean I wanted to. I just didn't want to go into it not having anything to go off of. Are you sure you're okay?" he asked. She was looking less comfortable by the minute.

"Jack, how did you know Piper's name?" she blurted. His gaze snapped straight to her, a sinking feeling in his gut. He'd said that. He'd said Piper's name and he'd had no way of knowing it back then... And now Tooth was looking at him as though she were hanging on his every word. He was lost for them though, he didn't know what to say. He'd been caught in the middle of a secret he shouldn't have kept.

"Jack?" she said again, hope slowly being overcome with disappointment. It was painful to see and he wanted to stop it with his whole being and he couldn't.

"I... I asked. I didn't know what else to do, Tooth!" Jack admitted.

"Oh, Jack. You went to Pitch?" she asked, but it was as if asking it physically hurt her to say.

"It was only for a second. He's still trapped. I only found out the name and that was it. I left just after!" he insisted, but the damage had already been done and it couldn't be undone. He'd gone to their enemy for help, to the person that had kidnapped all Tooth's precious fairies and stolen the teeth she had spent eternity collecting, to the person that had put everything she cared about in jeopardy. And the worst part was that this wasn't even the first time he'd done this to her.

"I'm sorry," he said, but the words were hollow and meaningless just then. Tooth shook her head.

"Jack, you went to Pitch for help. Were you that sure that we wouldn't be able to fight this on our own?" she asked and the silence as he fumbled for words stretched on until she broke it. "And what about now? Do you trust us at all?"

"Of course I do!" Jack replied instinctively. He'd seen them fight off Pitch before. He knew they'd been protecting the hopes and dreams of children for centuries longer than he'd even been alive. He knew that the moon himself believed that the Guardians were the best chance the world had. But he couldn't stand the thought that any kids would be threatened. And he couldn't stand the thought that he hadn't known how to stop it, that he still didn't know how.

"I knew it was a risk to go down there. But I thought it might be something to go on," he said, still trying to explain, although her expression made him think he wasn't helping the situation at all. Tooth shook her head and a frustrated sigh escaped her lips.

"Jack, this isn't just about you going to see Pitch. It's that you didn't tell anyone, you didn't even bring it up," she said. "I know you've been on your own for a long time, but you're not alone anymore. Being a Guardian doesn't just mean safeguarding children. It means being part of something, it means trusting each other and believing that together we can accomplish this. Because, Jack? On our own, there isn't a single one of us who can do this."

She caught his eye and the significance of what she was saying began to sink in. He had gotten excited about everything he'd sworn to when he took the Oath after fighting Pitch. Fighting darkness away, protecting the hopes and dreams of children, he could see why it was important. He could see why the Man in the Moon had decided this was his destiny.

But for three hundred years Jack Frost had existed on his own. He had been his own person with no ties to a single soul. He did his own thing and if it bothered other people so be it. No one relied on him, no one needed him. Heck, back then no one even saw him. Now all of that was changing. People expected things from him, the Guardians needed him. They needed him to trust them and to be part of a team, to work in coordination with them. Technically he'd signed up for this, but he hadn't really understood all that it meant at the time. Now, with Tooth looking betrayed and hurt, it was beginning to sink in what all was at stake here.

"Alright," he replied. "Give me a little while here to clear my head and then I'll come to the North Pole. I'll explain everything. And... I won't go behind your back like that again." It was a lot to promise so quickly, but he knew he'd ultimately get there when he was able to think. Mostly he just wanted to be able to get some space so that he could figure out what he was going to say when he got in front of the others. Just thinking about it made him want to run.

Tooth gave a small smile at his answer. It was sad, but it seemed genuine at least. She was hurt, but at least she still had hope that he wasn't a lost cause, which was more than Jack could say for himself just then.


	5. Chapter 5 - Hunting for Snipes

"Jack! Tooth!"

Jack and Tooth's conversation was abruptly interrupted by a voice that Jack would have known anywhere. Jamie was at the bottom of the tree Jack had been sitting in. Jack cringed inwardly for a brief moment, wondering how much, if any, of the conversation he'd heard. But Jack quickly covered up all the ugly thoughts on the surface with a self-assured smirk and hopped spryly down from his perch.

"Hey, Jamie!" he greeted happily. He noticed a couple books tucked under the boy's arm. Fairy tales and legends from the look of it, so not much had changed. And why would it? If anyone had been given a good reason to believe in magic it was Jamie. "What are you doing out here?"

"Looking for snipes!" Jamie exclaimed. Tooth gave a friendly smile, but she seemed a little confused by what Jamie had just suggested.

"Snipes, huh?" Jack asked. "Did you read about those in there?"

"Nope," Jamie replied. "My dad told me about them last night. I've been wanting to go look for them all morning. He said they're these really fast birds and they love chocolate. Mom said they don't exist, but that makes all the more reason to look for them!"

"Why is that?" asked Tooth, flying down to join the conversation.

"Well," Jamie began, drawing in a deep breath and gathering his thoughts. "I figure that if the Tooth Fairy and Jack Frost and yetis all exist, but no one can see them because nobody believes in them... I'll believe in all of these things too and I'll see if I can find them. That way no one will be invisible anymore!" The plan struck a chord with Jack. A smile grew out of him from some place deep and warm. He nodded his approval, lost for words.

"That's a really sweet idea, Jamie," Tooth said. Jack realized that her hand was on his shoulder. Maybe it had been more obvious than he thought how much what Jamie had just said meant to him.

"Snipe! Snipe, snipe!" From a little ways down the path, Sophie came running to her older brother, pointing behind her.

"Did you find one, Sophie?" Jamie asked excitedly.

"Snipe!" she replied, pointing up at a bright red bird. Jamie sighed in disappointment.

"No," he muttered. "That's just a cardinal."

"Maybe we can help you look," Jack offered.

"Jack?" Tooth trailed off, looking nervous. Did they have time for this? Maybe not, but Jack didn't have the first clue where to go next. Maybe a new perspective on it would help.

"You might be able to help us with a puzzle while we're looking," Jack suggested. He looked to Tooth to see if she'd be okay with the detour and although she seemed hesitant, a quick glance upwards and a shrug told him that she'd let it go for now. He didn't imagine that he had much time though.

"So let's say there's a kid," Jack began as they strolled through the park. Sophie was on Jack's shoulders, occasionally pointing at a bird and asking excitedly until someone answered her whether it was a snipe. "And you're trying to make him see that he's doing something wrong. But doing the right thing would mean that he would be upset. How do you convince him that he should do it anyway?"

Jamie pushed aside some leaves before he answered, holding a half-open chocolate bar in hand. After realizing there were no snipes there, he gave more thought to the question.

"You should talk to his friends," Jamie replied. "Because when you do bad things it makes your friends worried. And when your friends are worried you have to stop. Otherwise you'd lose your friends, and that's the worst."

"What if he doesn't... have friends?" Jack said with a worried look back at Tooth. Jamie gave Jack a weird look, like he didn't quite understand the question.

"Well no one wonder he's being bad then," Jamie said with a laugh.

"Snipe! Snipe!" Sophie cried out again, but Jack's eyes were on Jamie as he set her down, Tooth's as well.

"I don't know that that's the right answer," Tooth said, shaking her head. "It would be dangerous."

"He's alone, Tooth," Jack said, a bitterness gnawing at him. "He's got no one to go to. Jamie's right, that can make you do stupid things." Jamie was staring at them, trying to figure out what they were talking about. Jack turned to Jamie to speak and then his eyes narrowed suspiciously.

"Hey Jamie... did you eat your candy bar?" he asked. Jamie's eyes widened and he looked in his hand, where half his candy bar was quite suddenly missing. He looked frantically around and then his eyes settled on something nearby: a little bird that looked like a weird cross between a roadrunner and a parrot. Jamie stared at it in gleeful surprise and the snipe looked back with pure terror.

"SNIIIIPE!" Jamie suddenly cried and charged forth as the bird raced away with a bit of chocolate still hanging out of its mouth. Sophie tried to follow, but was quickly left behind. She looked angrily after her brother and then sat down on the ground to pout and wait until he came back for her.

"Jamie, no!" Tooth shouted. Jack laughed and leaned up against the nearest tree. Tooth looked frantically back at him.

"What? He's not going to hurt the thing, this is Jamie we're talking about," he said. "He'll have a new friend by the time we've made it to the North Pole."

"Jack, you don't understand! Snipes aren't supposed to be here!" she shouted urgently. Jack's smile faded. "They were around back in the Dark Ages, but Pitch sealed them away. When kids see them, they forget about everything else and snipes will run anywhere to get away from kids. That snipe will lead Jamie off a building if it has to and Jamie will follow it!"

"No..." Jack whispered. "We've got to stop him!" The two of them took off and Sophie watch in disappointment as her other two companions promptly left her behind as well. She huffed angrily to herself, tears beginning to boil up, when suddenly a bit of movement caught her eye. A kid walked out of a nearby bush, but he didn't seem interested in her. He started running after where Jack and Tooth had just flown, but Sophie stepped into his way.

"Wait!" she said, not wanting to be left behind for a third time. The kid stopped, seeing the sniffling and bedraggled little girl who was standing in front of him balefully. He looked from Sophie to the trail and back again.

"Hi," Sophie said, waving at him and wiping the tears away from her shy smile. After a brief pause he sat down across from her.

"Hi," he said. "Who are you?"

"Sophie!" she said, pointing to herself proudly. "Are you?"

"My name's Piper," the boy greeted. "It's good to meet you."

"How do ya meet ya," Sophie replied, shaking his hand before he could offer it. "Wanna play?" The Pied Piper blinked, taken aback, and a smile finally spread over his face.

"Yeah!" he said. "I know a game, if you want to learn it."

"New game!" she replied excitedly, clapping her hands.

"Okay, first you gotta close your eyes and count to ten."


	6. Chapter 6 - Hide and Seek

Jack and Tooth quickly found themselves on the edge of the park. Traffic flew past, trucks and cars that suddenly had Jack more nervous than he'd been in years. His eyes scanned the sidewalks, the road, but Jamie was nowhere to be seen. He looked to Tooth, but she didn't seem to be having much luck either. Her purple eyes were intensely scanning, but if even she didn't see him...

The loud scream of rusted metal moving through an un-oiled joint caught Jack's attention and he looked to an alleyway by an older brick building. In its shadow was a fire escape and Jamie had just pulled down the stairs to it. The snipe was at the top of the fire escape, looking from Jamie to the roof of the building across from it. A bird might be able to make a jump like that, but no kid ever would. Jack darted across the street, barely missing the cars that passed quickly by, and flew up to meet Jamie at the top of the fire escape.

"Jamie?" he asked, but Jamie didn't even acknowledge him. He was walking as quietly as he could towards the bird, trying not to spook it. "Jamie, no!" Jack rushed forward to grab Jamie's hand, but it went right through the kid's wrist, as if Jack were a ghost. As if he weren't believed in... He tried again to grab him and again his hand went right through.

"No, no no," Jack whispered in a frenzy as the bird took flight. Jamie moved to follow and just as he did a strip of ice appeared under his feet and he tripped over himself, hitting his head on the railing, but at least unable to go over it. Jamie blinked away the shock of the impact, looking around with the same excited expression, but after a few seconds, it dulled. He rubbed his head where it had struck iron, but there was no blood, just a knot.

"I guess it got away," he said, then looked down at the fire escape, surprised to find himself there. "Woah..." Jack watched nervously as Jamie looked from the fire escape over to him.

"Hey, Jack? Did you help me get up here? I don't really remem-" He was cut off in mid-sentence as Jack dropped to his knees and threw his arms around the kid. Jamie blinked in confusion and noticed that Jack's eyes looked glossy when he pulled away again. What the heck had happened?

"Hey Jamie," Jack said, his voice barely making it above a whisper. "How about we don't hunt for snipes anymore, okay?"

* * *

"Pie!" shouted Sophie, nearly tripping over herself as she turned in circles, searching. "Pie! Are you?" The park was dead silent, but it was a quiet and ominous silence, the silence of something hidden and waiting.

Sophie began to get frustrated. She plopped down in the middle of the trail, looking angrily ahead of her. Suddenly one of the branches moved in a bush nearby. Sophie's eyes lit up and she got back up to her feet walking clumsily over to the bush and peering inside. She found a pair of green eyes staring right back at her.

"Boo!" Piper said, and Sophie squealed with laughter and ran away. Piper jumped out of the bush and walked after her, pretending to be trying very hard to catch up. After a few seconds he ran over in earnest and scooped her up in a hug.

"Got you!" he said, setting her down again. "Your turn to hide." Sophie nodded, but then something else caught her attention.

"Pretty!" she said, seeing a tin whistle poking out of the Pied Piper's pocket. He looked around warily and then took the whistle out.

"Do you want to see?" he asked, holding it out to her. Sophie nodded excitedly and took the whistle, blowing out a shrill note that made Piper cringe.

"Ack. Uh, no," Piper said, putting his hands over hers and moving her fingers over the right holes. "Okay... try that." At first a rapturous note escaped the whistle. Then one of her tiny fingers slipped and that sharp, shrill cry hit again like nails on a chalkboard.

"Alright, well, you're happy I guess," he muttered, cringing more visibly as the horrible, horrible series of butchered notes continued.

"Sophie!"

The Pied Piper froze in place. That voice... that was the kid from earlier, who had had Jack and the Tooth Fairy with him. The last thing Piper needed was to walk into a fight against those two. Outside of his fun house world, he would lose in an instant. Without a second thought, he ran, disappearing into the bushes. Sophie watched, perplexed, as her new friend hurried away from her. Were they playing again?

"Are you?" she asked, walking over to the bush and peering inside. But no green eyes met hers this time and soon Jamie was running over with Tooth and Jack trailing behind.

* * *

Tooth left ahead of Jack, wanting to get back to the North Pole and let the others know about the snipe. When they were done dealing with Piper, they already had another thing waiting. Jack couldn't help but feel frustrated. They'd done good by locking Pitch away, hadn't they? So why did it seem to make everything more difficult?

He walked Jamie and Sophie home. Jamie seemed quieter than normal and Sophie just kept looking sadly back at the park. After a brief good-bye, Jack turned to leave, and thought he saw a familiar gold-haired kid across the street, watching. He checked to make sure that Jamie and Sophie had gone inside, but when he looked back the kid, whether the Piper or not, was gone. It could have just been his mind playing tricks on him. But with the incident earlier that day, Jack was not about to let anything else threaten Jamie and Sophie. And if the Piper had seen that these kids were close with the Guardians, that might make them a target.

He hurried across the street, but no matter how hard he searched, there was no one to be found. Time was passing though, too much time. He needed to get back to North's workshop. He wasn't sure if Piper was hiding somewhere nearby, he wasn't entirely sure what he wanted to say to him if he was. Ultimately his voice ran away with him and he stumbled into speech.

"I was alone for a while you know," he said to the seemingly empty trees around him. "A long time, really... I want to be mad at you, because what you're doing is hurting people. But I think maybe you know that. And I think maybe you don't think you have another choice. I don't think you're a bad kid. I just... I want to help you so that everyone else can see that too."

Silence greeted him, but nothing else. He shook his head. This was silly, he was acting on a whim and even if Piper had been there before, he had likely disappeared into one of his portals a while ago. The wind whipped up around Frost and he flew up into the air, the wind carrying him north as fast as it could go.

In the bushes nearby, the Piper stared pensively ahead, still trying to comprehend everything he'd seen and heard that day. His empty hands were balled into fists, unnerved to be without his precious tin whistle. It was his safety, a thing he could rely on, a portal to another world where he was in control. He couldn't escape like this, he couldn't make a portal without it. He would have to get the whistle back from Sophie that night.

* * *

The snipe was having a rough day. It had been sealed away for centuries, but at least in being sealed away there had been no children. There had been fear, but no monstrous little children with their grabby hands and their hungry eyes.

"SNIPE!"

The bird took off, hurrying into the woods in a panic, but the kids followed like hounds hot on a trail. The bird turned sharply, the kids followed like a pack of wolves. There were three of them behind him now and his tiny little heart hammered beneath his chest. Run. Run. Run! Find somewhere dangerous, somewhere scary, somewhere where they won't follow anymore!

A hole! A big black scary hole! Down the hole!

The snipe darted down into a cavern where shadows played on the walls. He could hear the echoing shouts of children behind him, but he kept right on running.

In the prison of nightmares, Pitch's eyes grew wide with astonishment as he heard the unmistakable laughter of children. The colorful plumage of a snipe caught his eye as it ran past.

"Impossible," he whispered, but watched as three kids stumbled in after the snipe, quickly realizing that it had disappeared into one of the many shadows around them. They laughed at first, but then it began to dawn on them where they were. Pitch could sense their fear, he could sense it growing as they looked at the rusted cages around them and the dark globe and its tiny, flickering lights.

"What is this place?" one of them whispered. Pitch took a step forward, through the nightmare cloud that had surrounded him for long. Vivid memories of horrible things flashed through his mind. Sharp teeth and blood and death... And then they were gone and he could feel earth beneath his feet for the first time in months. A cruel grin lit over his face and leaned in over one of the children. He could sense fear and suspicion growing in her.

"Yes," he whispered in her ear. "You remember, don't you? You remember who lurks in the dark." The girl slowly turned around to where she had heard the voice come from. He saw her eyes grow wide and focus on him. She saw him, there was no two ways about it. She was staring right at him..

"Boo," he whispered. The girl and her two friends screamed, clambering over each other to reach the exit. Pitch watched with delight, feeling power seep into him. The first seeds of fear had filtered back into the world and he was about to make sure they could never be uprooted again.

**/ Author's Notes: It is ridiculously hard to write well as a two-year-old. Everyone else I can get into the head of pretty well. Tooth was the hardest one by far for me until Jamie and Sophie showed up, but Sophie... A lot of people over-simplify little kids and it's one of my pet peeves because I find actual little kids' worldviews incredibly intriguing. **

**Any rate, hope this chapter turned out okay. I think more stuff happened in this one than in any one prior, there's a ton of shifts. Aaaand... hold onto your seats guys because the boogeyman is about to come back in a big way. And you better believe there's a lot to Piper's story that I've been holding back on.**

**I appreciate the reviews I've gotten so far. It's always fun to see you guys' reactions to what I'm doing; it helps me see if I'm accomplishing what I want to as a writer. The goal up until now has been to try to get people to the point of "You know, even Pitch is better than THIS." And now that he's back... well, we'll see whether that turns out true.**

**Again, thanks to everyone who's been leaving reviews! To my followers I will try to keep you entertained and exceed your expectations. Thanks for reading, everyone! /**


	7. Chapter 7 - Troubles

Sophie's house had grown still and quiet as one by one each of her family members had gone to bed. Every light was out and golden dream sand flitted through the windows, invisible to everyone who had had the privilege of growing up. Not to Piper, though. He waited outside the window and watched in the cold, nervous about even this task.

After a while, he ventured inside, up to Sophie's room where he knew the tin whistle would be. He looked over a few of the surfaces, her dresser, the table by her bed, but he couldn't seem to find it. At last he looked over to Sophie, asleep in her bed with the whistle clutched in her hand. Of course... he thought, cursing his luck. He didn't want to wake her, but he needed it back.

He tried to gently pull the whistle away, but she was holding it too tightly. Finally, he managed to pull it out of her grasp, and froze apprehensively as she made a muffled noise and shifted, on the verge of waking. But then she slumped back into sleep again and Piper dared to breathe once more.

She looked older when her face wasn't lit up with emotions. She would grow up, eventually forget how to see dream sand and stop believing in everything that made the world magical. He could stop that, steal her away from it. He had that power. But he thought of what Jack Frost had said earlier, about hurting people. It made him sad to think of her growing up and forgetting about him, but maybe it didn't make her sad. Maybe that's what she wanted. He exhaled in frustration, caught in the middle of a puzzle he didn't have the first clue how to solve. But at long last, he turned to leave.

And found himself staring at the robes of a dark figure standing before him. Piper froze, clutching the whistle so hard his knuckles turned white and he stared ahead, not daring to look up to confirm who it was. He was trembling visibly, unable to bring himself to move.

"I see you remember me," Pitch said, kneeling down to better see the fear etched out on the Pied Piper's face. "You didn't really think I was gone, did you? I've got a new prison for you, Piper." At those words, Piper stumbled clumsily backwards, tripping over himself to put distance between him and Pitch.

"Unless," Pitch said, taking a step forward just as Piper found his back against a wall. "Unless you hand over that tin whistle and the world it calls on."

"Liar!" Piper shouted, playing a tune to call a portal up. He could escape, he could leave Pitch behind and get to the Guardians. Even if he wasn't on good terms with them, they were strong, maybe even stronger than Pitch. The portal appeared and out of the corner of his eye he saw Sophie wake up, staring at him with some mix of fear and fascination. He couldn't leave her alone with Pitch...

* * *

He didn't see the scythe carved out of the shadows of the room as it swung down on him. As it connected, he was lost in a thousand nightmares of pain and death and sorrow, as though he were back in the prison, as though a thousand years was passing in an instant. He woke a few minutes later to an empty room. Pitch was gone, his tin whistle taken from his hands, and worst by far, the bed where Sophie had been lying before was empty.

The North Pole had never been tenser than it was when Jack arrived there. Tooth was talking about something with Bunny. The Sandman was on his dream cloud, his eyes closed as he kept careful watch over the dreamers of the world. If someone woke unexpected, Sandy would know it at once. Jack didn't know what to do in the meantime. He couldn't hear what Bunny and Tooth were talking about, but from their tones and expressions he had a bitter guess in the front of his mind. Shame bit into him and caused him to leave the center of the workshop before he'd even realized his feet were moving.

Toys whizzed by overhead in bright colors and whirring, strange sounds. Everywhere he looked, his gaze wandered over one incredibly thing to another. This place had awoken such a sense of wonder when he'd first stepped inside, but right now even that wasn't making it through.

He ended up in front of North's workroom and stared at the door. He could hear him working inside, probably trying to let his mind settle in these few moments where they couldn't yet do anything. After a brief hesitation, Jack knocked on the door.

"Ah, you learn to knock! Well done! Come in," North bellowed from inside. Jack opened the door and watched North's expression change, turning more serious. Apparently North had not been expecting him, which was fair. Jack hadn't expected that he would end up here.

"Jack? Come in. You do not look so well," North said, getting up from where he had been working at his desk, a half-finished ice sculpture in hand. "Tell me what is on your mind."

"A lot of things," he said. "I figure Tooth's probably told you by now..." He trailed off, looking to see if this was a confession he was going to have to make a second time. North did not look at him, focusing on the sculpture in his hand, but he did nod.

"Yes," he said. "You talked to Pitch. This is not best idea you have had."

"Yeah, I got that in the end," he muttered. "Sorry that I went behind you guys like that."

"Is okay so long as you learn from it," North said, chiseling out a smooth surface over the ice sculpture and then running a hand along it to brush away the excess. "Is not easy, learning to be a Guardian. There is good reason why Man on Moon picks so carefully. Everyone has problem starting out, something that makes it difficult to protect children of the world."

"Really? What was yours?" Jack asked, looking around the room at the half-formed ideas carved into the ice around him.

"I had to learn to listen," North explained, setting the ice sculpture down for a moment and leaning against his desk to face Jack.

"I wouldn't have expected that," Jack admitted. North had been there to listen to him any time he'd needed it. He'd taken for granted that that was part of his character from the beginning.

"Is still problem sometimes, still something I must watch," North went on. "Before I was Guardian, I meet elves and yeti. They are well-meaning, but maybe not sharpest or most creative. So I tell them 'paint this red', 'put beams here'. I get used to talking, I forget how to listen. Then I meet Sandy. And this man cannot speak. But he has more to say than I will ever know. And to know any of it, to understand any of it, I have to listen. Very carefully. So it comes to this: what is trouble for you?"

Jack stared at the ground, thinking carefully about the answer. He had gone behind them to Pitch because he didn't like the plan. He tended to think on his own, he tended to act on his own. He could pretend all of that was because he was used to acting by himself, but if he was perfectly honest that wasn't true.

"I was on my own for a long time," Jack said at last. "No one really relied on me, and I didn't rely on anyone else. I'm used to working by myself."

"You cannot stand guard over the world by yourself," North warned.

"No, I can't. I have to trust other people to help me," he admitted. "I just... need to learn how to do that."

"I tell you who is good at trusting people, Jack," North said, tapping the side of his nose with his finger as he thought, then pointing to Jack as he revealed the answer. "Tooth."

Jack paused and considered that. He remembered how many times Tooth had thought the best of him, even after he'd let her down. He nodded slowly, still watching the floor, but his mind feeling a little clearer now. He wasn't completely lost in the woods, there was someone he could learn from at least.

A thud against the door snapped both of them out of their conversation and when Jack opened it, Bunny was standing there, looking very concerned.

"We've got a problem."

"What is it?" demanded North, hand on his sword as he hurried towards the door. "Sandy?"

"I'll explain on the way, come on!" Bunny exclaimed, running on all fours back to the main room. Jack flew next to him, careful to dodge the piles of toys scattered haphazardly over the workshop. North ran just behind them, hurrying to keep up.

"Sand fell away, we were about to go after it, but then the globe starts going weird. Lights started going out, more than usual," Bunny explained.

"How many?" asked Jack.

"A dozen or so, but that's not the worst of it. The last bit of dreamsand that Sandy got from the kid, it had an image over it. She saw something she couldn't have seen." As he finished explaining, they arrived in the main room, where Tooth and Sandy were waiting anxiously.

"What did you see?" North asked Sandy. The Sandman stared gravely at them all and with a flick of his hand, formed an image of Pitch in the air.

"That's impossible..." whispered Tooth.

"Where did the sand fall away from?" Jack asked. The Sandman stared starkly ahead and the image above him changed to a house that Jack knew all too well and then an image of Sophie, with her fairy wings, hopping around in the dreamsand. Jack's eyes cheated over to Bunny, whose expression was more war-like than he had ever seen it.

"We start there then," North asserted, pulling the snowglobe from his pocket and tossing it into the air. Bunny's usual hesitation at North's method of transport was gone. He leapt through the portal before anyone else had had a chance to move. The others followed quickly after into a familiar old battlegroud: Burgess.

/O hi! Look at that, I'm still alive!

Sorry for the hiatus, and thanks to those of you who stuck with me through it. I promise I'll have more chapters up soon. I'm too close to the end not to finish this story.

This was a difficult chapter, I think in part because it's just been too long and I've fallen a bit out of character. The scene with North and Jack ended up being a spontaneous inclusion because I realized there would be no way for Piper to go get the Guardians if he had gotten his flute stolen. And I didn't want to shift over to the North Pole just to have them go "Oh look! A thing! Let's go!"

Any rate, thanks again for all the follows and reviews. I look forward to finishing this out and I'm glad to see that people are reading it and commenting. Every one is appreciated./


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